A letter to a man with impeccable Prempeh pedigree
Dear Mr. Atiemo:
As we are all aware, you're a product of Prempeh College. Not only did you attend the
College, your father, who was Prempeh's 1956 Senior Prefect, also served as Headmaster
of our great college from 1977-84.
Furthermore, you were actually born on our campus.
Mr. Atiemo, the Senior Housemaster
Mr. Atiemo, if there is anyone who has an impeccable Prempeh pedigree, it is you!
That is why we were very happy when we heard that you have been appointed Senior Housemaster of
the alma mater. In fact, it may be because of your outstanding pedigree that the current Headmaster
chose you to be his Senior Housemaster.
Given that our headmaster didn't attend Prempeh, he chose you probably because of your
knowledge of the school's history; you are better placed to guide him on what not to do to risk any scowls from
the Board of Governors or other stakeholders. Who is better to advise the current boss about the shortcomings of previous headmasters
and the causes of their administrative demise than a man whose father suffered the most well known example of a truncated
term in office?
Generally in Ghana, Sir, there is a tendency on the part of certain people not to
approach their administrative duties with as much panache as they would do with their alma maters.
School facilities may be deteriorating while administrators adopt an apathetic attitude simply because
they "did not come from that institution." But on the other hand, administrators (i.e., headmasters, assistant
headmasters and senior housemasters) work passionately in positions of authority when they are dealing with their own alma maters.
They would even use their own funds to repair a crack in a leaking ceiling before they solicit funds from
stakeholders.
That is why your appointment as Senior Housemaster served like music to our ears. Because
almost all of the administrators at Prempeh today are non-old boys, there are fragments of this
aforementioned culture of negligence there (we will get into that later). And that is why you become our only hope.
You see, the previous headmaster, who went away in disgrace, transferred all the masters with Prempeh pedigree out of Prempeh and brought in non-oldboys because
Prempeh graduates were a threat to his totalitarianism. That is why the great biology master Ben Kumah was pushed away. All the great old boys who were teaching
passionately to uplift Prempeh were kicked out unceremoniously by the notorious Sekyere.
And that is why, when we look at the campus for old boys, the omly names that
come immediately to mind are yours and Guy Gee's.
We expect you, Mr. Atiemo, to lead this administration in the right path. You should be advising the Headmaster and his deputies
any time you see or foresee situations that could potentially be detrimental to the running of the College. Mr. Atia, you should
be the star at Prempeh. When it was first brought to your attention that food was not enough at the dining hall, we expected you, as a person with impeccable Prempeh
pedigree, to resolve the situation because of your own love for Prempeh even if the headmaster was not good-natured in this regard.
Mr. Atia, please lead, lead, lead us!!! The old boys around the world are counting on you to be the star among Prempeh's administrators. We expect you to teach the other masters
about Prempeh's rich culture and our history. Regale them with the stories of the good
old days when you were growing up at Sofoline. What about a story about your father being
a student at Prempeh with President JA Kufuor? Did your father, as Senior Prefect, ever
get to punish the President of Ghana? Was Mr. Kufuor unruly in his Prempeh days? What has
your daddy told you about him? Please grab a chair and share these stories with the other masters.
When we see any group of Prempeh teachers having a conversation at the administration
block, we expect to see you in there, leading the chat, mesmerizing them and deadening
their ears with rich Prempeh Appian Way mythology. We have it, don't we?
We know you would deliver in such apt and gracious words that the masters will become
soporose at your tales, and the form one boys would become ravished by your sweet historical
discourse.
Please guide your colleagues in the administration in the right direction
and put the students' interest first. Please consistently serve as advisor to
the headmasters and point them in the right direction. Always feel compelled to
trumpet the need for decorum and help them stick with conventions.
If your crusade to enhance Prempeh's future is met with opposition or disdain from other members
of the administration, then the old boys would lobby behind you. Thousands of old boys in the
universities could eagerly rush to campus to lend you support. Prempeh.org will find it extremely easy in mobilizing the
old boys to march to the Board of Governors and present to them our Special Appreciation to be relayed to you, to remind them of your indispensability to the current
Prempeh administration.
The school is ours as well as yours. Right now, you are our only star in the higher offices there.
